Ugh,

 

I don't know why I don't know how to do this.

 

I'm trying to preclear and add a new drive to my array.

 

I've done preclear and add before but through a putty session (which was problematic since the computer running putty would sometimes go to sleep/reset for updates/crash while preclear was running so it took several days to get it to run a complete preclear.

 

I've now got a monitor and keyboard on my unRaid box, but I cant get to the console command line.

 

I feel like a dummy.

 

Once my unRaid has booted up, I get a cursor, but nothing that I do seems to have any effect.  The cursor is all the way to the left of the screen there is no root:, boot:, or C: equivalent.

 

cd /, cd /root, cd /boot etc etc etc have no effect.

 

Help, this seems stupid, but I can't get it to happen.....

 

Thanks

 

John

You should have a command prompt, and it should be looking for a login. You use "root" with no password to initially log in. You can change that either in console or via the web interface. If you don't have that, your boot-up may have hung up. Check to see if you can ping and/or access via telnet.

 

Also, you can install "screen" to make the pre-clear independent of the telnet session.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

 

Got the new HD for Christmas and would like to get it in service while I have some time off.

 

Yeah, I don't get a command prompt.  Perhaps I'm not waiting long enough.  I get a ton of text as it boots up, but it's been stopping at a blank cursor.

 

Any thoughts?  It's been working fine.  Not sure what's happening.

 

Thanks

 

John

 

 

Can you access it via telnet and/or web interface? You should have a "login" prompt if it's done booting.

Yes, I can get there through a putty session and through the web interface (however I don't want to "start" the array because that will start the clearing process for the new drive and leave my array off line), but no login at the server itself.

 

I'm rebooting and will leave it alone for a while.  We'll see.

Nope.

 

Took the new drive out.  Rebooted. Started the array.

 

I can access the web interface, my laptop can see my shares, my tivo can see my shares, I can get to a command prompt through putty.

 

But, I still have a blank cursor at the server itself.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

John

Try typing in "root"; if it asks for a password, just press Enter.

 

Otherwise, I'd leave it for now, install "screen", and run your pre-clear from Putty.

Yeah, tried typing root....nothing.

 

I'll look into screen and try to run things from there.

 

Thanks

Thanks for the prompt reply.

 

Got the new HD for Christmas and would like to get it in service while I have some time off.

 

Yeah, I don't get a command prompt.  Perhaps I'm not waiting long enough.  I get a ton of text as it boots up, but it's been stopping at a blank cursor.

 

Any thoughts?  It's been working fine.  Not sure what's happening.

 

Thanks

 

John

When it finishes printing all the text at boot-up, just press the "enter" key once or twice and you'll see the "login" prompt.  It just scrolled off the screen as all the rest printed.

 

You can do that now without rebooting...  You should see the "Login:" prompt.

Respond with

root

and press enter.

 

When it finishes printing all the text at boot-up, just press the "enter" key once or twice and you'll see the "login" prompt.  It just scrolled off the screen as all the rest printed.

 

You can do that now without rebooting...  You should see the "Login:" prompt.

Respond with

root

and press enter.

 

No joy.  It just returns a new blank cursor.

 

The last item that is installed is python image manager.  I'm going to go through my "go" script and get rid of a few things and see if that changes things.

 

When it finishes printing all the text at boot-up, just press the "enter" key once or twice and you'll see the "login" prompt.  It just scrolled off the screen as all the rest printed.

 

You can do that now without rebooting...  You should see the "Login:" prompt.

Respond with

root

and press enter.

 

No joy.  It just returns a new blank cursor.

 

The last item that is installed is python image manager.  I'm going to go through my "go" script and get rid of a few things and see if that changes things.

there are 6 virtual consoles.

You can simply press Alt-F1 through Alt-F6 to switch between them.

 

Try Alt-F2 to get to a login prompt.

 

Joe L.

there are 6 virtual consoles.

You can simply press Alt-F1 through Alt-F6 to switch between them.

 

Try Alt-F2 to get to a login prompt.

 

Joe L.

 

No effect.

 

However, if I remove the pytivo command from my go script.  I get the login prompt.  However, I'd prefer to not leave my server inaccessible to my tivos for 30+ hrs.  I've installed "screen" through the unRaid menu and allowed it to re-install on reboot.

 

How does "screen" work.  If I just run a putty session, will the pre-clear keep running even if the putty session stops?

 

Thanks

 

John

Well, I've got preclear running in a putty window.  But I don't think that simply installing "screen" has had much effect.

 

It appears that my pytivo installation is what was/is causing the problem, but I don't know why or what it was doing.  Everything was working fine, but I hadn't tried to get to a command prompt for some time.

 

Any troubleshooting advice?

 

Thanks

 

John

Well, I've got preclear running in a putty window.  But I don't think that simply installing "screen" has had much effect.

 

It appears that my pytivo installation is what was/is causing the problem, but I don't know why or what it was doing.  Everything was working fine, but I hadn't tried to get to a command prompt for some time.

 

Any troubleshooting advice?

 

Thanks

 

John

Don't put commands in the background. (with an "&")

 

Joe L.

 

Don't put commands in the background. (with an "&")

 

Joe L.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

 

Are you referring to entering commands in putty?

 

I currently do not use any ampersands when entering commands in putty.

 

For what it's worth (probably very little) I'm copying my go script below.

 

As I mentioned above, everything "works" as I think that it should (including pytivo), but for some reason my boot seems to be hanging and I cant get to a login prompt.

 

#!/bin/bash

# Start the Management Utility

/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

/boot/unmenu/uu

installpkg /boot/packages/python-2.6.6-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/ffmpeg-0.6-i486-1alien.tgz

installpkg /boot/packages/openssl-solibs-0.9.8p-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libusb-1.0.8-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libtheora-1.1.1-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libogg-1.2.0-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/alsa-lib-1.0.23-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libX11-1.3.6-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libXext-1.2.0-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libXfixes-4.0.5-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libxcb-1.7-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libXau-1.0.6-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libXdmcp-1.1.0-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/glibc-solibs-2.12.1-i486-3.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/libjpeg-v8a-i486-1.txz

installpkg /boot/packages/pil-1.1.7-i486-1.txz

/usr/bin/python /boot/packages/thebayer/pyTivo.py

cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c

 

Thanks

 

John

I suspect your running of "/usr/bin/python /boot/packages/thebayer/pyTivo.py" also prevents the last line in your GO script from executing "cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c " and also prevents the startup process from fully finishing.

 

To see if that's the case try the following few last lines in your GO script.

 

echo "Invoking PyTivo"
/usr/bin/python /boot/packages/thebayer/pyTivo.py
echo "Finished invoking PyTivo"
echo "Installing automatic boot packages"
cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c 
echo "GO Script completed"

If you never see the "Finished invoking PyTivo" on the console, then that's the case.

 

Personally I'd use the following as the end of my GO script, to be sure everything else is installed before invoking any services.

 

echo "Installing automatic boot packages"
cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c 
echo "Invoking PyTivo"
/usr/bin/python /boot/packages/thebayer/pyTivo.py &
echo "GO Script completed"

BINGO!

 

I replaced:

 

/usr/bin/python /boot/packages/thebayer/pyTivo.py

cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c

 

with

 

echo "Installing automatic boot packages"

cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c

echo "Invoking PyTivo"

/usr/bin/python /boot/packages/thebayer/pyTivo.py &

echo "GO Script completed"

 

In my GO script and things are working better.

 

I still got some error messages at the very end (I think that they have something to do with my pytivo config file) and then a blank cursor.

 

However, this time, pressing enter took me to a login prompt and I was able to get preclear running just as I hoped.

 

Once again, many thanks to the unRaid community for the knowledgeable and prompt (On Christmas Day no less!) help.

 

John

I still don't get the "GO Script Completed" message. 

 

Like I said, I get some error messages about pytivoconfig and then a blank cursor.

 

However, pytivo works just like it should.

 

I can view my videos, photos, and play music directly from the server.  I think that there is something wrong with my pytivo.conf file that doesn't effect the parts that I'm actually using.  I'll mess around with it in a day or two, since I've been able to get preclear running now.

 

Thanks